1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable electronic device and a portable cellular phone having a photographing function and more particularly to the portable electronic device and the portable cellular phone being equipped with, for example, an electronic still camera, which is preferably used when an operator (photographer) takes a picture of himself/herself.
The present application claims priority of Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-401963 filed on Dec. 28, 2001, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a portable electronic device such as a portable cellular phone has not only its original function of providing for a telephone conversation (voice communication) but also a function of carrying out data communications. That is, such the portable electronic device is provided with a browser and/or a mailer which enable an access to a homepage through the Internet to send or receive E-mail, thus allowing a user to enjoy, with ease, Internet connection service and/or E-mail service, irrespective of time and/or a place.
Moreover, in recent years, such the portable cellular phone being equipped with an electronic still camera as is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-295323 is generally and widely used. In such the disclosed portable cellular phone, a sender can send E-mail to which a face of the sender and/or a landscape surrounding the sender are attached as image data and a receiver can confirm an appearance of the sender from the attached image data on a display of a portable cellular phone.
The portable cellular phone having the function of taking a photograph such as a folding portable cellular phone 101, as shown in FIG. 24, is provided with a small-sized mirror portion 104 placed just beside a lens window 103 of an electronic still camera mounted on a side of a rear surface of a housing 102 to check a photographing position to be fixed when an operator takes a picture of himself/herself. The operator, when taking a picture of himself/herself, has the portable cellular phone 101 be positioned so that an image of the operator is looked in the mirror portion 104 and checks to see, while observing an image of the operator appearing on the mirror portion 104, that the image of the operator does not deviate from an area in which a photograph can be successfully taken.
However, the conventional folding portable cellular phone 101 has a problem in that a concave and convex shape of the above mirror portion 104 provides an abnormal feeling from a design viewpoint and the mirror portion 104 becomes readily conspicuous due to specular reflection and, when not being used as a mirror, in particular, is not favorable from an aesthetic viewpoint. Moreover, the conventional folding portable cellular phone 101 presents another problem in that, since its mirror portion 104 is placed, from the aesthetic viewpoint, only in a limited small area on the rear face of the folding portable cellular phone 101 so as not to be conspicuous, it is difficult to exactly check on the range in which a clear photograph can be taken and it is impossible to reliably take a photograph of a desired subject all the time.